On Thursday, CNN News Central lambasted President Donald Trump and his supporters for the crime of questioning pre-election polls and pointing out that they have been wrong in the past. Predictably, they sent their MAGA-shaming correspondent Donie O'Sullivan out to expose polling skeptics as conspiracy theorists while offering little examination of why some voters distrust the polling industry in the first place. Instead, they treated conservative skepticism as evidence of a broader effort to undermine confidence in the midterm elections.
Host Boris Sanchez introduced the report by claiming Trump's criticism was fueling conspiracy theories among his supporters, in which, “Those claims are fueling conspiracy theories among his MAGA followers.”
O'Sullivan traveled to Kansas to interview attendees at a Trump rally about the state's Senate race. One woman offered a fairly straightforward concern about polling methodology, saying: “You can make polls say anything you want. It depends on who you’re polling.”
CNN just ran a report from Donie O'Sullivan lecturing and shaming conservatives and MAGA for daring to argue that election polls might not always be entirely accurate https://t.co/JEScdEPpkT
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 29, 2026
But instead of exploring that concern, CNN used the woman's skepticism to reinforce its narrative that conservatives were falling for conspiracy theories. So what happens if Kansas isn't a nail-biter?
O’Sullivan’s report repeatedly lectured viewers that polls are merely snapshots of voter preferences, not predictions of election outcomes. Yet that explanation hardly settles questions about sample sizes, voter demographics, polling methods, or the accuracy of individual surveys. O'Sullivan gave little attention to the possibility that Republican voters simply distrust the numbers being presented to them by liberal cable networks:
The midterms are almost always challenging for the party in power, but the President and his allies are trying to convince their supporters that Republicans’ positions in the polls is part of a grand conspiracy.
(....)
Opinion polls are not meant to be predictive, but rather a snapshot of where races stand at a given moment. This year, there are several Senate battlegrounds where polls show no clear leader in the final stretch of the midterms.
CNN went on to highlight a tiny snippet of Speaker Mike Johnson's suggestion of coordination between Democrats and the mainstream media -- imagine that -- before turning to conservative commentator Benny Johnson. “These polls are designed to trick you and say that there’s no reason to vote at all. All is lost,” said Johnson.
The network then featured former 60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan's claims that polling suggesting Texas could turn blue was part of an information operation intended to prepare voters to accept alleged election fraud.
CNN made no effort to distinguish ordinary skepticism from broader claims. Instead, O’Sullivan misled viewers by sweeping them together under the banner of conspiracy theories rather than recognizing the distinct difference between polling accuracy and election fraud.
Rather than scrutinize polling practices or engage with voters' concerns, CNN chose to shame the skeptics. Apparently, questioning the media's numbers is only acceptable when the questions come from the media itself.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
CNN News Central
October 29, 2026
3:38:20 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Final Spring to Midterms; Trump, MAGA Media Baselessly Claim Polls Are “Designed to Trick You”]
BORIS SANCHEZ: Ask any election expert, and they’ll tell you pre-election polls are simply a snapshot of which way voters appear to be leaning at any point in the race. Right now, if you ask President Trump, he’ll tell you they’re fake or rigged.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP [on 10/19/26]: The polls are fake. [SCREEN WIPE] A lot of the polls are rigged. [SCREEN WIPE] [on 09/28/26] The polls are fake. [SCREEN WIPE] [on 10/20/26] Fake news, fake polls are all fake. [on 10/15/26] [SCREEN WIPE] They’re rigged polls. [SCREEN WIPE] [on Newsmax’s Finnerty, 10/14/26] A lot of crooked polls.
SANCHEZ: The President even arguing that poor Republican numbers are part of a concerted effort by Democrats to skew the results and to trick voters. Those claims are fueling conspiracy theories among his MAGA followers. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan has more.
DONIE O’SULLIVAN: The polling showing that the Senate race pretty close here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #1: Very close. But who’s running the polls? You can make polls say anything you want. It depends on who you’re polling.
O’SULLIVAN: President Trump has been on a mad dash across the country campaigning even in traditionally Republican strongholds, like here in Kansas.
TRUMP [ON 10/10/26]: The fake news media is trying to demoralize Republican voters with bad journalism and rigged polls.
O’SULLIVAN: Kansas hasn’t elected a Democratic U.S. Senator in almost a century.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #1: But they say he didn’t win. But we knew he did.
O’SULLIVAN: But the President has rallied here and in other deep red states like Texas, as polls show razor-thin races for Republican-held states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #2: I think a lot of polls are kind of skewed in one direction.
O’SULLIVAN: The midterms are almost always challenging for the party in power, but the President and his allies are trying to convince their supporters that Republicans’ positions in the polls is part of a grand conspiracy.
SPEAKER: MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA) [on ABC’s This Week, 10/18/26]: I believe there’s a concerted effort between the Democrats and the mainstream media.
O’SULLIVAN: Opinion polls are not meant to be predictive, but rather a snapshot of where races stand at a given moment. This year, there are several Senate battlegrounds where polls show no clear leader in the final stretch of the midterms. But despite this –
TRUMP [on 10/19/26]: I think it’s fake polls.
O’SULLIVAN: – Trump and MAGA media repeat the baseless claims ad nauseam.
BENNY JOHNSON [on The Benny Show, 10/14/26]: These polls are designed to trick you and say that there’s no reason to vote at all. All is lost.
O’SULLIVAN: And its filtering through to the MAGA base. [TO TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEES] It’s going to be a pretty close Senate race here, based off the polls race, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #2: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #3: Eh, I don’t think so. I don’t believe the reports.
O’SULLIVAN [TO UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #3]: So, you think it’s possible the Republicans could maybe keep the House and the Senate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #3: I think they’re going to.
O’SULLIVAN: Do you think so?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEE #3: I think so. I think so because, as far as the farther away from election day, the polls are wider. And now as it comes closer, they tend to tighten up, and now a lot of them are within the margin of error that were -- they were 10-to-12 point leads, so what they’re doing is they’re admitting the fact that they tried skewing it, and they don’t want to look like idiots.
O’SULLIVAN: Part of the purpose of the President’s and MAGA media’s attacks on polling is to prime their base to question Democratic Party victories next week.
LARA LOGAN [on Real America’s Voice’s Bannon War Room, 10/14/26]: And all you idiots promoting that Texas is going blue. Texas is going blue.
O’SULLIVAN: The conspiracy theory spelled out most succinctly by former 60 Minutes correspondent-turned-election denier Lara Logan.
LOGAN [on Real America’s Voice’s Bannon War Room, 10/14/26]: No, it is not going blue. That is a shaping operation in information warfare that is designed to make you believe the cheat, so that when the steal happens, you don’t look at it and say, these people are insane. You say, oh, well, you know, they said Texas was going blue. I guess they were right. They are not right.
O’SULLIVAN: But at the same time, as the President attacks the polls and the media, he proudly touts any polls that reflect positively on him.
TRUMP [on 10/10/26]: And just before we leave, I thought we’d put up there’s a couple of charts from of all groups from CNN.
O’SULLIVAN: But even good poll numbers are a sign of conspiracy to the President.
TRUMP [on Newsmax’s Finnerty, 10/16/26]: And they do them both ways. In some cases, they have me leading by so much that people aren’t going to vote. And in some cases, they have me losing.
SANCHEZ: Donie O’Sullivan, thank you so much for that.
